TENK Secretary General Sanna Kaisa SPOOF selected as ENRIO chair
Finnish National Board on Research Integrity Secretary General Sanna Kaisa SPOOF selected as ENRIO chair
The European Network of Research Integrity Offices (ENRIO) has selected Dr. Sanna Kaisa Spoof, the secretary general of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK, as its chair for the 2018–2021 term. The selection was made on 5 October 2018 at ENRIO’s annual conference in Stockholm.
Dr. Sanna Kaisa Spoof has been the Secretary General for TENK since 2010. Her previous working experience includes positions as Faculty Head of Research Administration (Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki), Head of Department of Continuing Education (Sibelius Academy), Secretary General (Lahti University Consortium) and Research Associate (University of Helsinki, Department of Cultural Studies). She has been both a project manager and a member or chair of steering groups in various EU-funded education end regional projects. She received her PhD in European Ethnology in University of Helsinki in 1998.
ENRIO was founded in 2008 after the 1st World Conference on Research Integrity in Lisbon for strengthening the status of research integrity and to promote responsible conduct of research in Europe. Finland has been involved in ENRIO’s activities from the very beginning. According to Spoof, the goal of this cooperative network is still up-to-date: that is to not only distribute information and experiences amongst its members but also to promote education on research integrity.
Today ENRIO comprises 31 member organizations, representing a total of 23 European countries. “Not all European countries have a national body to investigate or prevent research misconduct, not to mention guidelines for responsible conduct of research. It is important for ENRIO to have connections with these countries as well,” Spoof says.
Spoof sees that one of the current tasks of European cooperation is to consider the status of a researcher who makes an allegation of misconduct or a researcher who has become the target of an allegation. “The research community needs common rules for having the courage to make an allegation of serious research misconduct. The fear of a whistleblower putting his or her own career at risk for making an allegation cannot be an obstacle. The possibility of anonymous reporting on the European level is also being considered.”
Investigating an allegation of research misconduct will benefit all parties involved. Particularly challenging are those cases regarding a violation of responsible conduct of research where its parties are researchers from different countries.
As a new chair of ENRIO Spoof wants to speak for the founding of a new European research integrity organization / association parallel to ENRIO. This would be a legal entity and that is why it could for example receive direct money from the EU. Its main task would be to support ENRIO´s activities. Organizing an European congress on research integrity of its own could be an important next step for ENRIO.
More about Sanna Kaisa Spoof as a researcher, see
https://375humanistia.helsinki.fi/en/humanists/sanna-kaisa-spoof
For further information: sanna-kaisa.spoof@tenk.fi